An IAF attack helicopter fired a missile at the house in the city's densely-populated Sheikh Radwan neighborhood around 4 A.M. [Ed. note: surely a time when no one else would be home. Right.]

From the force of the blast, the three-story structure collapsed, burying people under the rubble. The family killed in the strike was on the house's upper floor. Hamas activists said additional victims might be buried in the basement.

To my surprise, Reuters (alone among news sources as far as I saw) reminded its readers of the similarity of this barbarous act to the 2002 Israeli dropping of a one-ton bomb on an apartment building, killing one Hamas militant along with 14 other people. Reuters did neglect to mention that, of those 14 people, nine were children.

Four Palestinians have died in recent days awaiting entry into the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, which has been closed for nearly two weeks since the kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

More than 3,000 Palestinians, including 578 deemed "urgent humanitarian cases," have been stranded for 16 days inside a make-shift terminal on the Egyptian side of the crossing, the Red Cross said Monday.

Two Palestinians died at the crossing on Tuesday - a 19-year-old woman and a 1.5-year-old infant.

The young woman, identified as Mona Ismail, was returning from an operation in a Cairo hospital. She died as a result of a severe deterioration in her medical condition as she waited at Rafah. The infant, identified as Hamze Abu Taleb, died of heat stroke.

The huge explosion destroyed the house of Hamas activist Dr. Nabil Abu Salmiyeh, a lecturer at Gaza City's Islamic University, killing him, his wife and seven of their nine children, the Associated Press reported.

Third update: Mid-morning, MSNBC reports the Palestinian death toll in Gaza is now up to 22.